Update from London on the EACPT

The Executive Committee of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT) met in London 12-13 October, hosted by the British
Pharmacological Society. The main business of this EC meeting was planning for major pending events and activities. Key items included:

Members of the EACPT Executive Committee

the 12th biennial EACPT congress to be held from 27-29 June 2015 in Madrid 
- the EACPT focus meeting in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, 3-5 July 2014 - the key theme is cardiovascular.
- update on the official EACPT journal Clinical Therapeutics (online access is a benefit for individual Associates of the EACPT - see register interest link below) 
- interaction with key policy organisations interested in medicines and patient safety, including the European Medicines Agency. EACPT chair Professor Gonzalo Calvo is inaugural co-chair of the Healthcare Professionals Working Party of the 

European Medicines Agency. 

The above photo, taking at the British Pharmacological Society offices, shows: 

Back row: Dinko Vitezić (Croatia), Simon Maxwell (UK), Donald Singer (UK), Ingolf Cascorbi (Germany), Ádám Vas (Hungary), Gerard Rongen (Netherlands) 

Front row: Gonzalo Calvo (Spain), Caridad Pontes (Spain), Marie Besson (Geneva), Ylva Böttiger (Sweden),  Caroline Samer (Geneva). 

Also at the meeting were Professor Kim Brosen (Denmark) and EACPT Chair-elect Professor Tabassome Simon (France).

Parliament buildings and former County Hall

EACPT biennial congresses provide excellent opportunities to showcase issues of topical international concern to the CPT community, through timely and accessible original research presentations and commentaries to policy-makers, health and industry professionals, health technology providers, patient groups and academia. 

The Madrid 2015 Congress will bring together a wide range of international delegates, including health professionals, clinical and life scientists, policy makers, professionals from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical communities and others interested in the spectrum from basic to clinical pharmacology and pharmacotherapy, and from drug discovery to regulatory affairs. 

Co-organisers Marie Besson and Caroline Samer reported on the recent Geneva EACPT Congress. Almost 600 delegates attended the 11th EACPT Congress in Geneva in August 2013, where there were 101 invited speakers from 21 countries - 15 countries from the European region and a further 6 countries internationally, from the USA, Canada, New Zealand, China, Benin and India. 330 abstracts were presented as oral and poster communications, following submissions from 57 countries from all 5 continents.

EACPT EC members Caridad Pontes (Spain), Adam Vaz (Hungary), Marie Besson (Switzerland) and Gonzalo Calvo (EACPT Chair: Spain) are members of the organizing committee for the 2015 EACPT Congress in Madrid. 

Key themes at the Madrid congress will include translational medicine and pharmacogenetics, advances in personalised diagnostics to improve the safety and effectiveness of medicines, updates on new biological approaches to disease, therapeutics of cardiovascular, cancer and inflammatory disease, clinical trial design and regulation, drug safety and toxicology, clinical trial design and governance, health policy and safe prescribing.

Register below interest in becoming an individual Associate of the EACPT and in future EACPT activities. 

EMA health professional working party elects EACPT's Gonzalo Calvo as its first co-chair

Gonzalo Calvo, chair of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (EACPT), is the new co-chair of the HCPWP of the European Medicines Agency. 

Professor Calvo is a consultant in clinical pharmacology in Barcelona and has extensive experience both in medicines regulation, including nearly ten years as member of the Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), and in learned societies. This is the first time that the HCPWP has elected a co-chair, following its formal establishment in June 2013.  

The Patients' and Consumers' Working Party (PCWP) and the Healthcare Professionals' Working Party (HCPWP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) both elected their new co-chairs on 26th September, 2013.

David Haerry of the European AIDS TreatmentGroup (EATG) is the new co-chair of the PCWP. He has 15 years experience as an advocate for HIV patients’ rights and has been a member of the PCWP since 2006. He will replace Lise Murphy of the European Organisation for Rare Diseases (EURORDIS), who was co-chair of the PCWP since 2010 and whose mandate has come to an end. The PCWP was established in 2005.

Both David Haerry and Gonzalo Calvo will co-chair these working parties for the next three years, together with Isabelle Moulon, Head of Patients and Healthcare Professionals at the EMA.

The main role of the PCWP and the HCPWP is to provide recommendations to the EMA and its scientific committees on all matters of interest to either patients and consumers or healthcare professionals in relation to medicinal products, as well as to monitor interactions between the Agency and patients, consumers and healthcare professionals.

EACPT Executive Committee members Professor Donald Singer from the UK and Professor Ingolf Cascorbi from Germany are also members of the EMA Health Care Professionals Working Party.

Professor Simon Maxwell, co-chair of the EACPT Educational Subcommittee, is observer on behalf of the HCP-WP on the European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance (ENCPeP).

New European Medicines Agency advice on black triangle prompts for medicines monitoring

See full EMA Press Release

Adverse reactions to drugs and vaccine are common and may be serious, with the risk of leading to hospital admission, delayed discharge from hospital or death. It has been estimated that up to two-thirds of the ADRs may be preventable, or interrupted before they become severe. 

The European Medicines Agency (see press release link above) has introduced a new EU-wide scheme to improve reporting and prevention of new, unexpected and serious adverse reactions to drugs and vaccines. The scheme involves increased monitoring, including supported by a list of products identified by an inverted black triangle symbol: typically for products that are new, or have had a new indication or formulation approved, or for which serious concerns have been raised.

Communication materials on additional monitoring and the inverted black triangle symbol have been produced in all EU languages. For further details see the factsheet and video below and the EMA Press Release.

Factsheet

Video in English (with subtitles in all official EU languages)

To view subtitles, click on 'captions' at the foot of the viewing pane and select your language. You can also turn subtitles on and off and change the way they appear.

Video in English